Chapter 12: Caught off guard

A few hours later, Mu Haoyang's speculation was confirmed.

Although even the Israeli people admitted that after the generations of "heroes" that grew up in war such as Dayan, Sharon, Barak, Netanyahu, Rabin, etc., Israel lacked a real commander and was used to fighting with Hezbollah and Hamas in southern Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank, Israel had no idea how to fight a large-scale war. However, as a country that is always threatened by existence and a country that pursues a tough policy, Israel does not lack shrewd generals, nor does it lack the courage to fight the enemy to the death, and the wisdom needed to defeat the enemy through war.

In fact, the Jewish nation is one of the smartest nations.

Only Jews can maintain the characteristics of their own nation after more than two thousand years of destruction. From the perspective of human civilization history, the glory created by the Jewish nation is no less than that of the only Chinese nation that has been passed down for more than five thousand years. Its national wisdom and national vitality are absolutely strong.

In this war, Major General Baram is a typical example.

As Colonel Nako Baram, this great-grandson of the Armored Battalion of the 600th Armored Brigade in the Fourth Middle East War, commanded the 190th Armored Battalion of the 600th Armored Brigade in more than 20 battles, lost a thigh, and even the upper and lower tanks needed support. Balam, the great-grandson of the armored soldiers commander known as the "Man Lion", entered the Israeli Armored Soldier Academy at the age of 18 and graduated with the first place in the whole grade. Later, he joined the 600th Armored Brigade as the second platoon leader. Fifteen years later, Balam was promoted to colonel brigade commander, and the 600th Armored Brigade also became a standing force in 2027. In 2032, Balam was promoted to brigade general and became the commander-in-chief of the Golan Heights.

During his service, Balam participated in two Southern Lebanon wars and three military operations against Hamas.

Although Baram performed very well in such low-intensity military operations and served as the front-line commander in the South Lebanon War in 2032, unlike other young and powerful generals of the Israeli army, Baram always believed that the IDF should not focus on small attacks and should have a longer-term vision, that is, to carry out thorough military reforms in the future full-scale war with Arab countries.

For this reason, Baram did a lot of practical things, and was regarded as a thorn in his eyes and a thorn in his flesh by many people.

For example, when developing the "Mekawa 6" main battle tank, Baram proposed through his military academy classmates who worked in the Armored Forces Command that the "Mekawa 5" design system should be continued to improve the status of mobility, rather than blindly paying attention to protection. In order to prove his point of view, Baram also proposed that in a large-scale war with Arab countries, the peace treaty with Egypt is just a blank piece of paper, and Israel will face the risk of fighting on two or even three lines, and the scale of Israel's military cannot meet the two-line combat at all, so it is necessary to attach great importance to the mobility of armored forces in order to quickly transfer combat troops between the two fronts.

For this matter, Balam almost had a frustration with the commander of the Israeli armored soldiers.

You should know that the design plan of "Mekava 6" was finally confirmed by the commander of the armored soldiers, and Baram was only the major battalion commander of the armored battalion at that time.

Of course, with his identity at that time, he was not qualified to speak out against the next generation of main battle tanks.

More importantly, Baram did not know that if Israel could not produce the fourth generation of composite armor, it would be impossible to design the "Mekava 6" main battle tank according to the "Mekava 5" type, otherwise there would be no need to produce the "Mekava 6" at all, just directly improve the "Mekava 5".

But, it is worthy of recognition that Balam's protest played a role.

After the mass production of the "Mekava 6" model began, Israel did not close the "Mekava 5" production line, but continued to produce more than 1,000 vehicles, and also modernized and improved all "Mekava 5", such as replacing the 140 mm electrothermal chemical smoothbore gun.

After becoming the commander-in-chief of the Golan Heights garrison, Baram did a crucial thing: to collect the "Mekava 5" main battle tanks that other troops don't want. By the time the war broke out, he had already won nearly 800. Therefore, except for the three ace brigades, the main battle tanks of the other five brigades were "Mekava 5". In the direction of the Sinai Peninsula, the main battle tanks of the reserve brigade were mainly "Mekava 4".

It can be said that Balam is a very outstanding armored soldier commander.

That's right, like all armored soldiers commanders, he was very clear about one problem: the soul of armored soldiers is attacking, not hiding behind the front line.

On September 20, Balam received a promotion order.

In the Israel Defense Forces, major generals have already had a very high rank, because there are less than twenty lieutenant generals in total, and generals only have honorary ranks.

On the same day, Balam proposed to the Israeli General Staff that he should take the initiative to attack Syria.

Although the request was not approved immediately, Baram still withdrew the three ace brigades as he thought and prepared for the offensive behind the front line.

According to his deployment, the main purpose of the attack was to drag the Syrian army.

To put it bluntly, it is to crush the offensive capabilities of the Syrian Army through offense, making it impossible for the Syrian Army to attack the Golan Heights as planned.

Only in this way can we use the least force to gain the most time.

For Israel, the most important thing is time, because it must be seized before Syria launches a full-scale attack. Only after stabilizing the southern front can the Israeli Defense Forces be able to increase troops to the Golan Heights and concentrate their superior forces to defeat Syria. Only after defeating Syria can they place troops on the Sinai Peninsula and force Egypt to accept the armistice agreement.

If Syria takes action first, the consequences will be hard to imagine.

In the early morning of the 21st, Balam's request was taken seriously and finally approved, to launch a limited-scale tactical counterattack in the direction of the Golan Heights, focusing on destroying the offensive deployment of the Syrian Army and striving to delay the attack time by two to three days.

At this time, Balam's early deployment played a crucial role.

After several hours of intense preparations, at around 4 pm on the 21st, the IDF crossed the actual control line of the Golan Heights and attacked Syria. The three ace brigades advanced in unison and began to advance towards Damascus.

It can be said that the IDF's attack came very suddenly.

Before this, the Syrian army did not receive any alarms, nor did it indicate that the Israel Defense Force was about to launch an attack. Although on the morning of the 21st, three ace brigades in Syria had retreated to the rear of the defense line, the Syrian military did not pay attention to this information. Instead, it believed that the Israel Defense Force was strengthening its defense because putting the ace force in the rear as a mobile force can play a better role. From a tactical perspective, the main force should also be placed behind the defense line as a reserve force.

In fact, the China National Affairs Advisory Group had issued a warning at that time.

According to the information declassified after the war, on the night of the 20th, the China National Affairs Advisory Group warned the Syrian military that Israel is likely to take the initiative to attack and suggested that the offensive troops be deployed at the back instead of all the frontier arrangements as stated in the education and science. In the early morning of the 21st, after the Israeli ace brigade retreated, the China National Affairs Advisory Group issued a warning again, reminding the Syrian military that the Israel Defense Forces are likely to take the lead in attacking and suggested that some troops entering the offensive position be turned on the spot into a defensive state.

Unfortunately, neither of these two warnings received any response nor received attention.

According to a military adviser's recollection, when warning the Syrian military, the military advisory group clearly mentioned that the defense depth of the Golan Heights was very shallow. If the IDF could not consume Syria's offensive power on the first line of defense, even if the defense depth was extended, it would be difficult to reverse the situation in the subsequent battle. Therefore, the IDF had no reason to withdraw the ace brigade to the second line of defense.

Strictly speaking, there is no second line of defense in the Golan Heights.

As long as Syria's armored forces break through the first line of defense, they can enter relatively flat areas, and the Israel Defense Force will lose its most important defense support point.

To put it simply, the defensive operations on the Golan Heights are not the same as usual.

This was confirmed during the Fourth Middle East War. At that time, the 7th Armored Brigade and the 188th Armored Brigade almost fought for the ammunition and food to defend the defense line. The two troops almost fought for nothing. It can be said that they were the last person to fight and did not retreat a step. If there was depth, the IDF would not have fought so hard, and it would be even more impossible for the two ace brigades to suffer such heavy losses.

The Syrian military did not pay attention to the suggestions of the military advisory group and eventually reaped the consequences.

When the Israeli army counterattacked, four Syrian divisions had already entered the offensive position, and the other four divisions were also carrying out preparations before the attack. As a result, when it was dark, the two Syrian divisions closest to the Golan Heights had been defeated by the Israeli army, while the other six Syrian divisions were in chaos.

That night, the Syrian General Staff did another extremely stupid thing: ordering the front-line troops to retreat.

Although judging from the situation at that time, letting the main force deployed in front retreat was an effective way to preserve its strength, this was equivalent to hitting the Israeli army, because the Israeli army had no intention of annihilation of the Syrian army, but disrupting Syria's offensive deployment through limited attacks. Letting the main force retreat was equivalent to letting all the preparations made in the early stage go to waste, which was equivalent to letting the opponent achieve his goal.

Judging from the situation at that time, the best choice for the Syrian army was to let the front-line troops stick to the spot.

In any case, the Israel Defense Forces only invested three brigades of troops and only took a few hours to prepare. The sustainability of the attack is definitely not very good, and it is impossible to pose a threat to Damascus. As long as the Syrian army defends on the spot, the Israeli offensive will soon become the last.
Chapter completed!